Copying / Cloning an ActiveStorage attribute

Question

I want to clone an attached image to another model. Either as:

1. a reference, such that the attachment won't be deleted until all the referring objects are deleted

2. by cloning the attachment and having it as a distinct replica...

How does rails handle ActiveStorage attachments? Do they get deleted automatically when the model goes or does it need to be done manually? Is there a reference counting mechanism?

Answer 1

This worked for me in Rails 6.1.3

model
  .new_file
  .attach(io: StringIO.new(original_file.download),
          filename: original_file.filename,
          content_type: original_file.content_type)